MiR-132 promotes the proliferation, invasion and migration of human pancreatic carcinoma by inhibition of the tumor suppressor gene PTEN.

MicroRNA (miRNAs) emerges as key oncogene or tumor suppressor in a variety of cancers including pancreatic carcinoma. In this study, we detected the role of miR-132 in development and progression of pancreatic cancer and the underlying mechanism. First, the expression of miR-132 in pancreatic carcinoma and adjacent non-cancerous tissues were detected by qRT-PCR. Then, the role of miR-132 in biological function of pancreatic carcinoma cells was investigated. Our results identified that miR-132 was generally upregulated in pancreatic carcinoma, and phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) was generally downregulated. miR-132 and PTEN were associated with advanced tumor size, lymph node metastasis and Tumor-Nodes-Metastases (TNM) stage of pancreatic carcinoma. Downregulation of miR-132 inhibited proliferation, migration and invasion of pancreatic carcinoma cells. In contrast, overexpression of miR-132 promoted proliferation, migration and invasion of pancreatic carcinoma cells. The luciferase reporter system demonstrated PTEN is a direct target of miR-132. Overexpression of PTEN abrogated the induction of miR-132 on proliferation, migration and invasion of pancreatic carcinoma cells. Taken together, miR-132 promotes the proliferation, invasion and migration of human pancreatic cancer by inhibition of PTEN, and could be a tumor oncogene in development and progression of pancreatic carcinoma, and might be a candidate prognostic biomarker and a promising target for new treatment of human pancreatic cancer.